Adjustable panel mounting for cord connector



Jan. 13, 1959 ADJUSTABLE PANEL MOUNTING FOR CORD CONNECTOR Filed May 1,1957 44 a L5 [fire/2 2/ [KW/ac A. fire/ms M4 K M 4 W4 Adlai A/for/zgysw. R. FRANCIS" 2,869,094 7 Unite Patented Jan, 13,1959.

ADJUSTABLE PANEL MOUNTING FOR. CORD CONNECTOR Wallace R Francis,Milford, Conm, assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation ofNew York Application May 1, 1957, Serial No. 656,234 2 Claims. (Cl.339-69) readily adaptable to resilient bushings and grommets.

as well as to electrical connectors. Such connectors are either suppliedwith female contacts or male prongs but for purposes of this inventionthey will be described broadly as contacts.

Television and radio receivers are being produced with back panels thatmustbe removed in order to service. the sets. It is always wellto.disconnect the sets from the power supply before touching any of theelectrical components. which comprise the chassis. Rather than. postelaborate warnings on the panel, it has been common practice to,fastenthe connector of the power supply cordto the panel so that it will beautomatically. dis connected from the chassis when the panel is removed.A typical example of theprior art. is the Francis et al. Patent No.2,756,403 which is assigned to the same assignee as is the presentinvention.

One difliculty that has been experienced inre cent years is, that ofassembling. the chassis in a. precise location sothat the connectormounted in the back panel will accurately engage in the chassis. Adisproportionate amount of time and expense has been incurred in tryingto hold the manufacturing tolerances within a certain range in order toeliminate this difiiculty. A bet ter solution is found in the presentinvention where the connector is adjustably mounted in an opening in thepanel member so that the connector may be moved the necessary amount toengage with the chassis.

The principal object of this. invention is toprovide an adjustablemounting for a body member in an opening in a thin panel.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel clip member foran electrical connector so that the con ne'ctor. may be inserted into anopeningin a panel member and locked therein by means of; the clip.

A still further object of this invention is to providean adjustablemounting. means for an: electrical connector in an opening in a panelmember so that the effective locking features of either the clip or theconnector must be destroyed in order to disassemble the connector.

A preferred embodiment of an electrical connector having my invention isillustrated in the accompanying drawing. It includes a body of resilientmaterial that contains a pair of female contacts joined to theconductors of an electrical cord. The connector has a front portion, anenlarged abutment portion and a reduced central portion that separatesthe frontfrom the abutment portion. A panel member that is usable withthis invention would contain an opening only slightly larger than thecross-section of the front portion of the connector. A recess is formedin the reduced central portion on opposite sides of the connector andbetween the contacts for reasons which will be discussed. hereinafter.

A clip member of flat construction is used to straddle, the centralportion of the connector and, loclc the con The panel is thenconfinedbetween the abutment portion and the clip.. It-

necto-r in the opening of the panel.-

is necesseary to permanently hold the clip on. the con.- nector and thisis accomplished by a pair of inwardly turned locking tongues on the,arms of theclip at the mid-height thereof to engage in the saidrecesses. These. locking tongues have an inclined, surface. tofacilitate the. insertion of the clip on the connector, but. which makeit impossible to disconnect. the clip without destroying either the clipor the connector.

My invention will be better understood from thefol lowing 'descriptionttaken in connection with the accom-. panying drawing and itsscope, will.be pointed out in theappended claims.

Figure 1 is an, isometric view of a portion of a thin panel memberhaving an electrical connector containing my invention adjustablymounted therein.

Figure 2 is an isometric view. of the U-shaped clip, member that isused. to lock the connector. in thepanel. Figure 3. is a cross-sectionalview. taken'onjthe lines 3-3 of Figure 5 throughthe.reducedcentral.portion of the connector showing the clip memberpartially assembled thereto.

Figure 4 is. a cross-sectional view similar to that of Figure 3 after.the clip member is finally assembled to to Figure 1, there is shown anelectrical. connector 10; forming one end ofa two-conductor cord- 11,and;

mounted in an opening 21 in the thin panel member 13.

Two female contacts 14 are first crimped, soldered on otherwise fastenedto the two conductors of. the cord 11. Then the connector body is,molded over the con: tacts to insulate them from each other as wellastoprovide a hand-hold for assembling and disconnecting, the connector.

A better understanding of the connector 10 may be had with relation tothe plan view of Figure 5; The,

connector maybe considered as containing three, seg: ments, namely, thefront portion 15, the. abutment POI. tion 16 at the backof theconnector, and the reduced:

central portion 17 that separates the front from the. abutment portion.The front portion .15is generally rectangularin cross-section in orderto conserve the amount. of material needed to moldthe connector. opening12in the panel member 13 is slightly larger than the cross-sectionalshape, of thefront portion 15 toal-v low the connector, to betinsertedthrough the opening. until the abutment portion 16: engagesthe.outerwsurfacei of the panel. The opening 12tisilarger-than: the.front=portion 15, but smaller than the abutmentiportioni 16:.

so that the connector may not extend completely through the opening.

The next consideration is to fasten the connector in the panel openingso that it is necessary to destroy the connector or the fastening meansbefore the connector may be removed from the panel. First, it is well tostudy the nature of the reduced central portion 17. It forms an annulargroove 20 with the front portion 15 and the abutment portion 16. Thisgroove extends completely around the connector and below the surface ofthe crossectional outline of the front portion 15. It will then beunderstood that the amount of adjustability of the connector in thepanel opening 12 is governed by the dimensional differences between thecentral portion l7 and the panel opening 12. Since the opening 12 issubstantially Also, the

coextensive with the cross-sectional configuration of the front portion15, a quick estimate of this adjustability may be had by comparing thesize of the front portion with that of the central portion 17.

A recess 21 is made in the central portion 17 between the contacts 14and on both the top and bottom sides as best seen in the cross-sectionalview of Figure 3. These recesses are provided'to cooperate with a clipmember 25 of U-shape that is cut from fiat stock. The two parallel arms26 of the clip are each provided with an inwardly turned locking tongue27 adjacent the mid height thereof for engagement in the recesses 21 ofthe connector. Each locking tongue 27 is in the form of a right trianglewith the hypotenuse of each triangle converging toward the connectingbase 28 of the clip when the locking tongues are considered as a pair.The hypotenuse or inclined portion of the locking tongue 27 serves tocompress the resilient material of the connector as the clip is forcedto slide over the central portion until the locking tongues 27 areconfined in the recesses 21. The clip member 25 is not made to operatewith a spring action but, on the contrary, is made rigid so that theresilient material will be compressed by the inwardly facing lock- Thereare several advantages in locating the locking tongues 27 adjacent themid-portion of the arms 26 of the clip member. The parallel portions ofthe arms adjacent the free ends thereof serve the purpose of a guidewhen installing the clip so that the resilient material of the connector10 will not be split or scored by the clumsy handling of the connectoras it is forced over the connector body. Once the parallel free ends ofthe arms 26 straddle the side of the central portion 17, it is mostdifiicult to angle the clip. This insures that the clip will be properlycentered as the locking tongues 27 first begin their travel from theside of the connector to the recesses 21.

Having described above my invention of an adjustable mounting for anelectrical connector in an opening in a thin panel member, it will bereadily understood by those skilled in this art that I have provided asimple and inexpensive clip member of novel construction. A connector orother resilient body member may quickly be assembled in the panelopening and locked in place by the novel clip member in one easyoperation using known mass production factory methods.

Modifications of this invention will occur to those skilled in this art,and it is to be understood, therefore, that this invention is notlimited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but that it is intendedto cover all modifications which are within the true spirit and scope ofthis invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. In combination with a thin panel member having an openingtherethrough, an electrical connector of resilient material that isadapted to be adjustably mounted in the opening, the connectorcomprising a front portion and an enlarged abutment portion, theseportions being separated by a central section having the leastcrosssection, two of the opposite sides of the said section beingsubstantially parallel, and a central recess formed in both of the twoparallel sides, a rigid U-shaped clip member of fiat construction havinga pair of parallel arms, an inwardly-facing locking tongue on each armnear the mid-height, so that when the clip is made to straddle thereduced central section of the body the locking tongues will compressthe resilient body material until they become confined in the saidrecesses where they are hidden from view, the parallel end portions ofthe arms serving to guide the clip onto the body, the said opening inthe panel being slightly larger than the cross-section of the frontportion of the connector so that the position of the connector in theopening may be adjusted by an amount that is determined by the size ofthe central section, the width of the section being substantially equalto the thickness of the panel plus the thickness of the clip i oppositesides of the central portion, the recesses being equally spaced fromboth of the underlying contacts, and a rigid U-shaped clip member offiat metal stock, each arm of the U member having an inwardly-facinglocking tongue adjacent the mid-height of the arms and beingsubstantially in the form of a right triangle, the hypotenuse of thetriangle when considered with the other locking tongue converginginwardly toward the base of the U member, the clip member straddling thecentral portion with the locking tongue confined in the oppositerecesses where they are hidden from view, the said groove being of sucha width as to confine the panel member between the abutment portion ofthe connector and the clip member, the said opening in the panel beingslightly larger than the cross-section of the front portion of the vconnector so that the position of the connector in the opening may beadjusted by an amount that is determined by the depth of the groove.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,171,331 Folsom Aug. 29, 1939 2,278,708 Miller Apr. 7, 1942 2,711,522Goodwin June 21, 1955 2,756,403 Francis et a1. July 24, 1956 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No, 2,869,094January 13, 1959 Wallace R. Francis It is herebfi certified that errorappears in the-printed specification of the above "numbered patentrequiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read ascorrected below.

Column 2, line 36, for "opening 21" read opening 12 column 4, line 31,for "conductor" read connector line 45, for "tongue read m tonguesSigned and sealed this 9th day of June 1959.

(SEAL) Attest:

KARL H. AXLINE Attesting Officer ROBERT C. WATSON Commissioner ofPatents

